exhibit-E, listening and responding to the web needs of the art world

by leslierankowfinearts

RESPONSIVE DESIGN IS A UNIFIED, ONE-WEB APPROACH TO MOBILE WEBSITE DESIGN. IT IS A PHILOSOPHY OF WEBSITE DESIGN THAT EVOLVED TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM OF ADAPTING WEBSITES FOR SMARTPHONES AND TABLES WITHOUT COMPROMISING CONTENT, SEARCH RANKING, SPEED, ANALYTICS AND BUSINESS RESOURCES. THIS PANOPLY OF SOLUTIONS EPITOMIZES exhibit-E’s COMMITMENT TO FINE DESIGN AND FUNCTIONALITY BOTH IN TERMS OF THE AESTHETICS OF THE WEBSITES THEY CREATE AS WELL AS THE HOST OF CAPABILITIES AND CONTENT THAT STRENGTHENS THE BOND BETWEEN THE ART-LOVING PUBLIC AND THE GALLERY, THE CLIENT AND THE ART ADVISOR, OR INTERIOR DESIGNER, ARCHITECT OR ARTIST. http://www.exhibit-e.com

IN TODAY’S BLOG, DAN MILLER, FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL OF exhibit-E, AND BILLY MAKER, SENIOR DESIGNER, CONTINUE OUR DIALOGUE ON THEIR LATEST CONTRIBUTION, galleryManager. HERE IS THE LINK TO THE VIDEO THAT DEMONSTRATES HOW THE iPAD APP WORKS. https://vimeo.com/gallerymanager

So let’s talk about the offerings that are out there, without going into too many specifics. Do you think these programs traditionally have been a little needlessly complicated, or does that complexity serve a purpose?

The existing programs are certainly complicated and that was our sole impetus for developing galleryManager—to eliminate complexity and streamline things. Most of the management software that galleries currently use are application-based, and they can be limiting in terms of what you are able to do with them. On top of that, just getting to learn how to use them can take up a lot of time. You have to read manuals. You can even take classes and get instruction if you’d like. And we just felt that there wasn’t a need for all that complexity—to have such a steep learning curve in order to manage the administrative needs of a gallery.

I know people sometimes look at something and see that it’s very complicated and difficult to learn and think, “Oh, well, this must be something very powerful and special.” Do you think galleries will bring that prejudice to what you guys are proposing here? No. This goes to the core of what we are trying to do as a company, which is get rid of all the complexities and make it so it’s really accessible technology, so you can use it without having any kind of training, without having to read through a manual. It’s an SaaS model which by nature is meant to be self-explanatory, and it has all the advantages of on-demand software—ease of use, easy access, free upgrades, and it’s always in sync across all devices. It just makes sense. We’ve been able to do that very well with our websites, and now we’re doing the same thing with galleryManager. So the hope is that people are not daunted by it, so that they look at it and say, ‘Oh, this is easy,’ and just jump right in.

I know people get nervous about transferring data and migrating things. Have you thought about that? Will you be able to manage that process with galleryManager? We are export experts. If a gallery has an existing system, we can transfer the data.

Knowing how the galleryManager software works, what would you say are the strengths of the program itself ? Definitely ease of use. Reliability. You don’t have to worry about keeping a server on premises, you don’t have to deal with viruses, and your data is reliably backed up. With a normal computer, if something goes wrong, you could have lost your entire collection of data and images and invoices. And that certainly is not going to be an issue with galleryManager. You don’t have to pay for any upgrades. And it’s going to work seamlessly with your exhibit-E website. Hurricane Sandy revealed the fragile nature of location-based inventory manage- ment. Sandy was the unimaginable event that nobody wanted to believe could happen. But there were more than a few galleries that were caught unprepared, who did not take all art out of harm’s way, and who had not anticipated what a good soaking would do to their databases. With waterlogged servers and lost data, those galleries were out of commission. After Hurricane Sandy there was much cleaning up to do in Chelsea, but galleries also had to rethink how they store and manage their inventory database. Some of those galleries contacted us looking for a sustainable, long-term, Web-based solution. We got them into galleryManager.

TODAY EVEN THE MOST CASUAL WEB USER WATCHES VIDEO CONTENT ONLINE VIA SITES SUCH AS NYTIMES.COM, CNN.COM, FACEBOOK.COM. YOU SEE IT ALMOST EVERYWHERE AND, NOT SURPRISINGLY, YOU TUBE IS NOW THE SECOND MOST POPULAR SEARCH ENGINE AFTER GOOGLE. DOZENS OF WEBSITES SPECIALIZING IN USER-SUBMITTED VIDEOS HAVE SPROUTED UP ALMOST OVERNIGHT. THE SUCCESS OF YOU TUBE AND ART-CENTRIC VIMEO, TWO OF exhibit-E’S FAVORITE OPTIONS FOR VIDEO WATCHING, PRESENTS ENORMOUS OPPORTUNITIES FOR ART-RELATED VIEWING.

IN OUR NEXT LRFA BLOG, exhibit-E WILL FURTHER INFORM US ON THEIR 2.0 STRATEGIES IN ART WORLD MARKETING.

UNTIL THEN, THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING THE LRFA BLOG, YOUR COMMENTS AND SUPPORT!